I consider myself to be a fairly practical person, and one of the things
that attracted me to Pirsig's writings was his gumption, the down to earth
usefulness of his ideas. I read Pirsig's books and said to myself, "hmm.
He's on to something." I expect the subscribers to this list have similar
feelings. I want to talk about some ways in which the values expressed in
these books might be tested and put to use. I don't care if my dog is
acting morally when he chases birds, I just want to fix my bike and move on.
The first example, I would like to discuss is Neuro Linguistic Programming.
This pseudo-discipline has been around for about twenty five years and has
mainly been abandoned to the fringes of education. It's mainly of concern
to mental health professionals, therapeutic hypnotists, business
consultants, and self-help tapes. NLP involves analyzing human language in
order to communicate, in order to achieve something, the way a shrink does
when he talks to a patient. One interesting thing that NLP has with MOQ is
that both begin with the assumption that reality is a map--made out of raw
data collected through our senses. NLP professionals take this assumption
and use it dissect body language, write legal contracts, power selling, etc.
There are countless other quincidinces, and NLP self help tape will babble
endlessly about the importance of "attitude" the same way Pirsig does.
Another example is computer science technology called Neural Networks. This
strange technology has been around for about fifty years and has existed
mainly among an elite. Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Procter and Gamble and some
high tech software companies are the ones using neural nets. Net are used
to build elaborate meta-models of the human brain and use these electronic
human brains to do statistical analysis, calculate insurance rates, pick
stocks, make security systems, etc. Now what this fringe technology and the
MOQ have in common is that they both begin with the empiricist's assumption
that legitimate knowledge comes to us as imput data through our senses and
we must then decide how much to filter out. Also like the MOQ the neural
nets prefer the dynamic over the static, and the best neural nets actually
Evolve their own software in a similar process to biological evolution.
Again there are countless other coincidences.
Now, there are plenty of other less interesting examples. Some kinds of
weather forecasting look a lot like the MOQ. But the point I'm trying to
make is that other people have independently arrived at many of the same
conclusions as Pirsig. Robert Pirsig tells us how to use these values to
fix a bike or tell a good story. However if these values can also be used
to get people out of group therapy faster or build better computers, then
maybe there the Metaphysics of Quality doesn't deserve to sulk quietly out
the back door of human knowledge. All the disciplines and authors who seem
have these values are usually on the fringes of society. The technology
that seems inspired by the MOQ is usually obscure.
Let's be practical folks, today, the MOQ is just some obscure topic on a
listserve. It's up there next to "discuss existentialist philosophy"--
"share your favorite recipes"- or - "discuss cats." It's entertaining,
sure, reading some brilliant MoQ post is just as much fun as getting the
"Small Caps Weekly Wrap Up" or the latest edition of "The Onion.
Now, one day I would like demand that the MoQ quit sulking around the
fringes of legitimate knowledge and demand to be thrown out the Front Door.
I have dreams of one day seeing a glossy Routledge paperback, The
Metaphysics of Quality: A Reader. It would be required reading for Freshman
English.
But in the meantime, I want to find people who have similar values, and
learn about other disciplines where the MoQ shows up. I want to collect
hard evidence that "yes, he's on to something." And then, eventually,
flaunt this evidence in public. No, I don't want to preach the MoQ gospel
or try to recruit people to join a listserve or read books, but rather make
real improvements in people's lives. Furthermore, I would, one day, like to
build an "academic reputation" for this discipline.
If you have recommend readings, web sites, or commercial products inspired
by the MoQ, write me an email about them. More importantly, if someone can
produce evidence which disproves the MoQ that's just the thesis we've been
waiting for.
-Daniel Colonnese
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